[Paddlewise] Kahuna--- Was Re: Kahuna - first impressions

----- Original Message -----
From: "PeterO" <rebyl_kayak_at_iprimus.com.au>

>
> Ralph, your advice worked superbly - Once I used your method, that step in
> the assembly became effortless and only took a minute compared with
> yesterdays 1 hour. The assembly time today, while checking the instruction
> book every step of the way, was half an hour at a very leisurely pace.
That
> time will easily drop to 20 minutes or less. Feathercraft could usefully
> change their instruction book to incorporate your method.

It is something that I found out after much trial and error.  But, it is
also possible that in the first video they ever had when the K-Light (the
Kahuna predecessor) came out that it was shown the way I mentioned.  I do
have the video but I recently moved from NYC and do not have my TV and VCR
set up quite yet to check this.  In any case, that first video and that
first assembly was with a "doctored" boat, i.e. the skin to frame fit was
extremely loose.  I did see it at the shop and was amazed.

Doctoring boats for demonstration purposes probably crosses some ethical
borderline which I confess I have done myself.  When I was given the
opportunity back in 1993 to appear at McGraw Hill's international marketing
meeting when the 1994 new books were being announced (including my Complete
Folding Kayaker), I jumped at the chance.  The publisher wanted me to
assemble a kayak while they went through the paddling and marine titles.  I
knew I could not afford to hit any snags.  The K-Light had just come out and
I really didn't know it well; so I decided to take in a Klepper Scout, the
2000 which assembled like other Kleppers.  It was however a generally hard
boat to assemble at the time (they later eased the skin to frame fit so that
it wasn't so vexing).  I went to Dieter Stiller the US importer and laid the
problem on him.  The found a demo whose frame had been used and a fairly new
skin that had been stretched some by being on display in the showroom.
Dieter then went around to every fitting and applied a little grease plus
fiddled with a light hammer to make certain all the rivets were just right
and every thing absolutely in line.  I went to the McGraw-Hill meeting and
was able to assemble the Klepper 2000 in under 10 minutes with no snags!

>
> I've heard back channel that the Kahuna can handle 2 to 4m sea. I'm
totally
> convinced of the Kahuna's strength but wasn't sure about how such a light
> and quite small boat would handle in those sorts of seas. It was very
> obvious yesterday that it performs well in strong wind.

Just another word regarding the Kahuna.  It is quite a bit stronger than the
K-Light because of the use of the telescoping bars not just at the keel but
also the chines and gunwales.  They have done some other beefing up here and
there.

ralph diaz

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